Caroline Donnelly > Caroline's Quotes

“In ways too dark and crucial to be called metaphorical, I never left that wood.”
― Tana French, In the Woods

“We're all flames in the fire.
We're all stars in the sky.
We are night and day and
Winter and Spring.
We are Everything.”
― Kate McGahan

“And so the spring buds burst, and so I gaze,
And so the blossoms fall, and so my days ...”
― Onitsura

“Persephone had it right.
If you must go, might as well
take all of spring with you—”
― Cathy Linh Che, Split

“That spring was the start of everything, for me. Before then, I might have been half-asleep, drifting through life.”
― Lucy Foley, The Invitation

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
― Mary Oliver

“Listen--are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?”
― Mary Oliver

“I believe in kindness. Also in mischief. Also in singing, especially when singing is not necessarily prescribed.”
― Mary Oliver

“You must not ever stop being whimsical. And you must not, ever, give anyone else the responsibility for your life.”
― Mary Oliver, Wild Geese

“Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable.”
― Mary Oliver

“Sometimes I need
only to stand
wherever I am
to be blessed.”
― Mary Oliver, Evidence: Poems

“To pay attention, this is our endless and proper work.”
― Mary Oliver

“I Go Down To The Shore

I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.”
― Mary Oliver, A Thousand Mornings: Poems

“it is a serious thing // just to be alive / on this fresh morning / in this broken world.”
― Mary Oliver, Red Bird

“It is better for the heart to break, than not to break.”
― Mary Oliver

“maybe death
isn't darkness, after all,
but so much light
wrapping itself around us--”
― Mary Oliver, Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays

“He is exactly the poem I wanted to write.”
― Mary Oliver White Heron Rises Over Blackwater

“No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn.”
― Hal Borland

“What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms.”
― Kobayashi Issa, Poems

“Sitting quietly, doing nothing, Spring comes, and the grass grows, by itself.”
― Basho

“Because who knows? Who knows anything? Who knows who's pulling the strings? Or what is? Or how? Who knows if destiny is just how you tell yourself the story of your life? Another son might not have heard his mother's last words as a prophecy but as drug-induced gibberish, forgotten soon after. Another girl might not have told herself a love story about a drawing her brother made. Who knows if Grandma really thought the first daffodils of spring were lucky or if she just wanted to go on walks with me through the woods? Who knows if she even believed in her bible at all or if she just preferred a world where hope and creativity and faith trump reason? Who knows if there are ghosts (sorry, Grandma) or just the living, breathing memories of your loved ones inside you, speaking to you, trying to get your attention by any means necessary? Who knows where the hell Ralph is? (Sorry, Oscar.) No one knows.

So we grapple with the mysteries, each in our own way.”
― Jandy Nelson, I'll Give You the Sun

“Darkness will always try to extinguish the light. The light will always try to repress the darkness.”
― Morgan Rhodes, Rebel Spring

“Despite the forecast, live like it's spring.”
― Lilly Pulitzer

“Chicago is an October sort of city even in spring.”
― Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make

“Love is like flowers blossoming in spring. When you think it ends, it’ll grow again in time.”
― Primadonna Angela

“Persephone Speaks

“I asked him for it.
For the blood, for the rust,
for the sin.
I didn’t want the pearls other girls talked about,
or the fine marble of palaces,
or even the roses in the mouth of servants.
I wanted pomegranates—
I wanted darkness,
I wanted him.
So I grabbed my king and ran away
to a land of death,
where I reigned and people whispered
that I’d been dragged.
I’ll tell you I’ve changed. I’ll tell you,
the red on my lips isn’t wine.
I hope you’ve heard of horns,
but that isn’t half of it. Out of an entire kingdom
he kneels only to me,
calls me Queen, calls me Mercy.
Mama, Mama, I hope you get this.
Know the bed is warm and our hearts are cold,
know never have I been better
than when I am here.
Do not send flowers,
we’ll throw them in the river.
‘Flowers are for the dead’, ‘least that’s what
the mortals say.
I’ll come back when he bores me,
but Mama,
not today.”
― Daniella Michalleni

“Tell them that you weren't hungry, tell them you followed the pomegranates seeds because they tasted like blood, like love.”
― Pauline Albanese, The Closed Doors

“Do not worry about your contradictions - Persephone is both floral maiden and queen of death. You, too, can be both.”
― Nichole McElhaney, A Sisterhood of Thorns and Vengeance

“Both Fen & Helen needed me to choose, to be their one & only when I didn’t want a one & only. I loved that Amy Lowell poem when I first read it, how her lover was like red wine at the beginning and then became bread. But that has not happened to me. My loves remain wine to me, yet I become too quickly bread to them.”
― Lily King, Euphoria

“Sometimes you just find a culture that breaks your heart,” she said finally.”
― Lily King, Euphoria